This invention is directed to a telecommunications management system and more particularly to a graphics based, end-to-end cable path documentation and search tool system.
As telecommunication technology continues to march forward year after year, the telecommunications professional is faced with an ever increasingly complex task of dealing with systems constructed with ever increasing levels of complexity and detail. In the early days (circa 1982-85), a corporation""s telecommunications infrastructure typically consisted of only a single phone system using a single Public Broadcast Exchange (PBX). When a new employee came aboard, maintenance on this telecommunications system was relatively simplexe2x80x94a few commands was all that was required to add a new phone.
However, as corporations grew, so did their telecommunications systems. Soon, companies had multiple telecommunications systems scattered among several sites. When an employee moved from one site to another, more commands were needed to accomplish this taskxe2x80x94a xe2x80x9cdeletexe2x80x9d on the old system and an xe2x80x9caddxe2x80x9d on the new system, and an accessible record indicating same. The tasks and their record keeping were at first dealt with manually using change requisition forms and control sheets.
For example, until recently, the only way to get reports on a corporation""s phone activity was to wait for the bill from the phone company and then go through it manually, call entry by call entry. At some point in time, owners/operators of modern telecommunications systems realized they too could track phone activity by using special data ports in the PBX. These ports became known as Station Message Detail Records or SMDR. The concept was simplexe2x80x94every time a phone call was completed, the PBX would transmit a single SMDR data packet. These data packets could be collected, stored on a computer, and detailed reports could be generated. A new system known as Call Accounting was introduced to meet this requirement.1 
1Please note that call accounting is on AIMWorX(trademark) module. 
However, while the Call Accounting system tracked phone use effectively, it also required data management. When a new employee came aboard, the telecommunications professional now had to add a data record into both the phone system and the Call Accounting system databases. When an employee moved, multiple records and multiple systems (e.g., databases) needed updating.
But technology did not stop there. Soon corporations began replacing individual telephone answering devices with more economical Voice Mail Systems (VMS). These systems could literally replace thousands of individual answering devices with a single machine. And VMS systems required data management means as well.
With the introduction of Computer-Based Phone Directories, Human Resource Systems, Credit Card/Authorization Code Systems, Emergency 911 Systems, Service Billing Systems, Network Access Devices, and many others, the telecommunications professional was soon faced with maintaining as many as 10 (or more) separate systems with the exact same information. Even with forms and procedures, this task was difficult at best and very error prone. Obviously, a better method was needed.
Another problem was that each of these systems have their own data entry terminal. This means that if the telecommunications professional does not use the integrated data management screen to do updates, the various databases in each system become out-of-sync with each other. This is known as the multiple-entry problem.
For example, suppose that a telecommunications professional updates the phone system via its own data entry terminal, but updates the Call Accounting and Phone Directory via the integrated data management screen. In this scenario, it is possible that the changes made directly to the PBX may be lost or be left different than those in the integrated product. The two databases are out-of-sync. Although it is tempting to mandate that all data entry is done via the integrated screen, in practice this is seldom the case. In many situations, work is required to be performed on a specific system and may require the use of a special field not accessible via the integrated screen. Even if all features could be moved to the integrated data management screen, the user interface would be so unwieldy that no user could navigate it.
The professional had to wait until the early 90""s before solutions were attempted to address this problem. The first attempt at solving this problem was known as product integration. The concept was simple, a telecommunications vendor would produce a product that would combine all of the needed features into a single package. By having all of the telecommunication features in a single platform, software could be engineered to run the platform such that each feature would share a single database. Concomitantly, a single data management screen could be presented to the user. From this screen, all products could be updated at once. Soon, products began appearing on the market that were Call Accounting+Voice Mail+Phone Directory (or the like) all in one software package. North Coast Logic produced two generations of such packages (VSX and ARENIX). These packages worked in many environments and are still in use today.
However, they didn""t work in all situations. One problem was that many corporations wanted multi-vendor solutions. The telecommunications professional did not want to be dependent on a single vendor for their entire communications infrastructure. They also wanted the option to shop around and get the best value, soon realizing that a single vendor could not be an expert in every industry.
Another problem was that these integrated software products typically consisted of or resided in a single hardware platform. That is, all applications ran on a single machine. If that machine failed, the entire infrastructure was brought down. Even though many vendors tried to compensate for this by using highly reliable (and redundant) equipment, the solution still fell short of relieving the mounting workload on the professional.
The problem with a single database design became evident by the database technology itself. No single database technology fills every application requirement. Each vendor makes database technology decisions based on their unique system framework. For example, a Call Accounting system may be able to use any off the shelf Database Management System (DBMS), but a Voice Mail System needs a specialized data streaming system that is able to store and retrieve recorded voice data at 4-8 kb per second. A Phone System database is usually completely stored in memory and made up of a series of jump tables organized in a tree-like fashion. This allows the system to traverse the database as each digit is dialed. No off the shelf database product would fit all of these unique requirements.
One suggested solution to this problem embodies a telecommunications software management system disclosed in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/183,414 for: A Telemanagement System With Modular Features And Database Synchronization, filed Oct. 30, 1998, (hereafter referred to as xe2x80x9cthe telemanagerxe2x80x9d) and incorporated herein by reference. The telemanager is a server package which integrates a suite of system control and application modules used to manage one or more telephone systems.
The telemanager provides several significant functions. The first is that software or application modules are easily added to the telemanager to suit a company""s growing telecommunication needs. Hence, as technology advances, modules may be added to the telemanager system in seamless integration with the PBX, the voice mail, and each existing, or future module added to the telemanager system. Second, the telemanager system easily synchronizes several databases, allowing them to operate as one, which proves beneficial for a number of reasons.
Also known is a xe2x80x9cspecialxe2x80x9dtelemanager system which deploys a unique Single-Point-of-Entry and synchronous database system (xe2x80x9cthe SPE managerxe2x80x9d). The SPE manager, like telemanager, is an integrated suite of system control and application software modules used to manage one or more telephone systems. The SPE manager is disclosed in commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/183,407, for: TELEMANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY, filed Oct. 30, 1998, and incorporated by reference herein.
The SPE manager controls commonly used PBX systems, and may also control adjunct systems such as voice mail and 911 emergency systems. The SPE manager may also integrate its application modules and system control modules through a single point of entry and provide for a synchronized database. Information entered through one module is thereby automatically accessible by all other modules (operating as a telemanager). For that matter, modules included to carry out particular telecommunications related tasks may be added to or deleted from the SPE manager based on user need.
The present invention is a telecommunications system software control module, that is, the cable manager module, used to define a telecommunications system as a graphical representation, and then apply a mathematical algorithm to the graphical representation to determine the shortest paths between components in the system. The graphical representation consists of points and line segments connecting the points, representing physical components of the system. The points represent the spaces in the system while the line segments represent the cables (or cable spaces) connecting the spaces in the system. A generic computer algorithm for determining the shortest distance between two points calculates same.
While the cable manager described herein is constructed to operate as a stand-alone module for integration into any conventional telecommunications system control software, it will be described herein with respect to its preferred embodiment as an active part of the AIMWorX(trademark) telemanager or SPE manager suites. That is, the embodiment(s) disclosed herein are for exemplary purposes only and are not meant to limit the scope of the invention in any way.
Cable manager operates as a graphics based, end-to-end cable path documentation search tool constructed to interact within a software system environment, for example, the SPE system or telemanager. Once operational, cable manager manages all of the cables and connections comprising a telecommunication system.